[Ernie]

Using the network utility application I did a port scan of my own computer and it reported that I have 3 open ports.

Is this a 'Bad Thing'? If so is there a way to close the ports?

I don't have file or web sharing turned on. However, I do have Appletalk enabled for printing. No servers connected. I have sharity installed but also, no connected servers.


Thanks,

[pahroza]

Without knowing what the ports are, there's not much I can help you with. However, there have been a few previous discussions regarding open ports on the past, it may help for you to search the archives and see what has already been said.

Cheers,
Andreas

[Eugene]

If you only have three ports open, that's good. Let me guess:

Port 111 and two ports between 700 and 800?

These are required by NetInfo and if you close them completely (something that an everage user problem wouldn't be able to do anyway,) your machine would probably boot into single-user mode or fail to boot at all.

You can easily filter access to those ports since only your local machine needs to access them. You can do this with Brickhouse...

Brickhouse is an aid that lets you create BSD "ipfw" entries and place them in a start-up script. Everytime your computer boots up, the script will run and create a firewall to your specifications.
http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=9103

[Ernie]

Yes, you are correct. Those are the ports that are open.

Thank you for this information.

Can these open ports be used to gain access to my system somehow?


Thanks again

[CraigC]

Hmmm...

I have five ports open: 111, two near 900, and two near 50000.

I have none open between 700 and 800.

What would be using these ports, and can someone access my computer through them?

[Ernie]

Question:
How did you know these ports are used by NetInfo?

What I would really like to learn is there a way to find out what the ports are being used for, through the terminal or other app?

Thanks!

[Eugene]

The ports near 900 should be the NetInfo ports. Like I said, they're dynamically allocated every time you start up. I have a computer that has those two NetInfo ports in the 1100s.

I know they're NetInfo because I've closed them, and NetInfo broke. People on various Darwin and OS X mailing lists have confirmed it too.

The ports in the 50000 range??? I don't know.